Valve's virtual reality headset Vive gets "limited release" in 2015

It looks like most of us will have to wait until early 2016 before we can buy Valve's virtual reality headset the Vive.

Valve said HTC will offer the first commercial Vive units via a "limited quantity" of community and developer systems later this year.

Larger quantities then ship in calendar Q1 2016.

HTC and Valve had said Vive would be out autumn 2015. The revised launch plan was buried at the bottom of a press release about Vive's appearance at PAX this weekend.

HTC and Valve have received over 10,000 developer kit inquiries and over 80 virtual reality titles are in production for the Vive, the company added. Dev kits are shipping through this summer and will continue during autumn.

Vive's Q1 2016 launch puts it in-line with rival VR headsets the Oculus Rift and Sony's Project Morpheus. It looks like all three will go head-to-head early next year.

Vive has a great shot and standing out, though. Eurogamer's Oli Welsh tried it at EGX Rezzed earlier this year and came away a changed man.